I – The Yellow-Rain Complex

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ANNALS OF THE COLD WAR about chemical & biological warfare. Reports of chemical-weapons attacks began appearing in press dispatches from Southeast Asia in the mid 70s. They were mostly based on interviews with Hmong tribespeople in Thai refugee camps. In their villages, in Laos, clouds of poison had descended on them in the form of "yellow rain". Harvard scientist Matthew Meselson & several colleagues advanced a hypothesis that yellow rain consisted of honeybee droppings. The Reagan Adm. wanted a renewal of chemical weapons production so they promoted the "yellow rain" theory. Meselson cast doubt on it. In 1980 there were reports of serious accident at a secret Soviet biological-weapons research facility in Sverdlovsk. An explosion was said to have taken place in which large quantities of lethal anthrax spores were released, bringing death to many. The incident was brought to U.S. public attention almost a year after it happened. The Soviets denied the story. They said an outbreak of anthrax had occurred in Sverdlovsk but that it had been brought about by improper sale & consumption of meat products in the area. Little weight was given in the American press to the Soviet explanation. However as time went on the Soviets opened up on the taboo subject of chemical-weapons production & this led to an agreement at the summit meeting in Wash. last June which called for the progressive destruction of the greater part of existing chemical-weapons stock piles held by the two superpowers. One benefit has been the cancellation of the U.S. binary weapons program.